New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday approved the ‘Mukhyamantri Digital Shiksha Yojana’ in a Cabinet meeting to provide free laptops to 1,200 meritorious government school students of Class 11

Currently, a budget of about Rs 7.5 crore has been allocated for this scheme, said Education and Sports Minister Ashish Sood.

Addressing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Sood said that this scheme will support the top 1,200 performing students who will take up different streams in Class 11.

This scheme was announced in the budget speech of the Delhi government, he said.

The free laptop scheme will be implemented from the academic session 2025-26 and will be repeated every year, he said.

Sood said the initiative aims to encourage academic excellence and support students in their efforts to pursue higher education, and they will be selected on the basis of their Class 10 Board results.

The Minister said this scheme is in line with the government’s commitment to promote digital literacy and empower students with modern devices.

With an eye on increasing digital literacy among students, the Cabinet has approved the scheme to set up computer labs with digital infrastructure in government schools, Sood said.

Under the first phase of this scheme (year 2025-26), 175 computer labs will be set up. After this, 175 more labs will be set up in the second phase (year 2026-27). The remaining schools will be included in the upcoming phases, he said.

A total of 544 schools have been selected in 350 school buildings on a priority basis. In this, priority has been given to those schools where different schools run in the morning and evening shifts in the same building, he said.

A budget of Rs 50 crore has been set for this scheme, and 40 desktop computers and other related digital resources will be provided in each lab.

For this, a project monitoring unit has been formed, which will monitor the entire process, Sood said.

–IANS

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